Power companies have been blamed for sparking some catastrophic wildfires in our region. But should they be held financially responsible for that? Not if they’ve done everything they can to mitigate risk, according to lawmakers in several states in our region.
Earlier this month, Wyoming became the latest state to pass a law (HB 192) letting electric companies at least somewhat off the hook, if they create — and at least try to follow — wildfire mitigation plans, which involve clearing brush and reinforcing infrastructure.
Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico and Montana are considering passing similar laws.
“The goal there is to do everything we can to ensure that we are not the cause of wildfires,” said Thom Carter of Rocky Mountain Power, while advocating for the Wyoming law.
He and others said it also protects companies from raising rates to cover costs. The price of insurance has gone up for utilities, after some were sued for millions of dollars after sparking catastrophic fires – most notably resulting in PG&E going bankrupt after being found liable for destructive fires in northern California.
Wyoming consumer advocate Anthony Ornelas said homeowners could still sue if companies aren’t “engineering their lines right, if they're overloading their capacity limits of their transmission [and] if they’re failing to do mitigation.”
But home insurers like Victoria Stewart at Farmers Insurance said those costs could just be passed on to homeowners living in wildfire-prone areas.
“It’s going to raise rates somewhere, so it can either be on homeowners insurance or it'll end up on utility,” Stewart told Wyoming lawmakers, who later passed the law.
Utah passed a similar law shielding utility companies last year.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
